13. Therapeutic treatment with cannabidiol, a non-psychotropic plant-derived cannabinoid, decreases inflammation in a murine model of acute lung injury

Abstract

Acute lung injury (ALI) is an inflammatory condition for which treatment is mainly supportive. We have previously shown that the prophylactic treatment with cannabidiol (CBD) decreases LPS-induced ALI in mice. The goal of the present work was to investigate the effects of the therapeutic treatment with CBD in the murine model of LPS-induced ALI. C57BL/6 male mice were divided randomly in 4 groups, Sal + vehicle, LPS + vehicle, and LPS + cannabidiol (20 and 80 mg/kg). Mice received intranasal (i.n.) instillation with LPS or sterile saline 0.9% and 6 h later were treated (i.p.) with vehicle or CBD. One and two days after the induction of inflammation we analyzed leukocyte migration into the lungs, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in the lung tissue, albumin concentration in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL), cytokine/chemokine production in the BAL, and adhesion molecule expression in leukocytes from the BAL. We observed that a single dose of CBD (20 and 80 mg/kg) decreases leukocyte (specifically neutrophil) migration into the lungs, albumin concentration, MPO activity, production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF and IL-6) and chemokines (MCP-1 and MIP-2), and ICAM-1 expression, 1 and 2 after the induction of ALI. Therefore, we showed that therapeutic treatment with CBD has anti-inflammatory effects in a murine model of ALI. Hence, we believe that CBD may prove useful as a therapeutic tool for the treatment of inflammatory lung diseases.